Repairs to storm-damaged Columbia Pike begin Monday

SILVER SPRING, Md. — Reconstruction on a busy roadway through Montgomery County begins Monday, and commuters should expect lane closures for at least a week, the Maryland State Highway Administration says.

Weather permitting, work will begin to repair travel lanes and a sidewalk of Route 29 (Columbia Pike) that was heavily damaged in last week’s rain storms.

“We’re going to have to literally rebuild half of a lane on both the northbound and southbound sides,” says David Buck, a SHA spokesman.

The emergency road work will extend from Southwood Avenue to Lockwood Drive.

The State Highway Administration will try to make the reconstruction as painless as possible, Buck says.

“We actually can take the extra lane in the morning northbound because, of course, all the flow on [Route] 29 — 80 percent of it — is southbound in the morning,” Buck says. “Then we can reverse that in the afternoon.”

Drivers have already had to make adjustments since the storms: The far right northbound lane was closed last week.

During reconstruction, lanes will remain closed even when crews are not there, the SHA says.

It is not, however, asking drivers to abandon normal commutes altogether.